Occult Germany - Intelligence Report - The Ahnenerbe

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INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Identification: Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe e.V.
Nationality: Occult Germany
Location: Berlin (HQ)
Nature of the organisation: occult archaeological institute
Number of personnel: unknown
Known affiliations: Thule Society
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July 1, 1935

Under influence of the Thule Society, the Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe e.V., commonly referred to as the Ahnenerbe, is created to support the idea that the modern Germans descended from an ancient Aryan race. The group comprises scholars and scientists from a broad range of academic disciplines, who would spread across the globe on many expeditions in search of artefacts and texts supporting their Aryan beliefs.

Ahnenerbe scholars interpret evidence to fit Hitler's beliefs, and some consciously fabricate evidence to do so. The organisation sends out various expeditions to other parts of the world, intent on finding evidence of ancient Aryan expansion.

The German government used the Ahnenerbe's research to justify many of their policies. For instance, their claim that archaeological evidence indicated that the ancient Aryans lived across eastern Europe was cited in justification of German military expansion into that region. In 1937 the Ahnenerbe undertaking was renamed the Research and Teaching Community of the Ancestral Heritage (Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft des Ahnenerbe). 

A.E. expedition to an undisclosed site

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NOTABLE EXPEDITIONS
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EGYPT
Year: 1936
Mission: recovery of the Ark of the Covenant, which Adolf Hitler believes will make his army invincible
Travels: Nepal, Cairo, Tanis
Operatives: Colonel Herman Dietrich (A.E.), Major Arnold Toht (Gestapo), Major Gobler (A.E.), René Belloq (French archeaologist for hire)
Rival operatives: Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (US archeaologist), Marion Ravenwood (US relic hunter)
Mission Summary: after the Ahnenerbe is sent to Tanis for excavation, in search of the Ark, the US Army Intelligence recruits archaeologist Indiana Jones to recover the Ark first. Gestapo officer Arnold Toht is sent to Nepal to recover a medallion which is part of the staff of Ra, in order to locate the Well of Souls, the Ark's resting place. Despite Jones and Ravenwood's attempts, the A.E. are successful in retrieving the Ark. However, all contact with the expedition is lost shortly after the scheduled opening of the Ark.
Current status: the Ark is presumed to be in American hands

Colonel Dietrich and Major Toht, in a picture sent to HQ shortly before contact was lost.

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IRAN
Year: 1938
Mission: study of the Behistun Inscription
Travels: Iran
Operatives: Walther Wüst (A.E. president), Mrs. Wüst.
Rival operatives: /
Mission Summary: an expedition comprising Wüst and his wife, an amanuensis, an Iranian student, a photographer, and an experienced mountaineer travels to Iran to study the Behistun Inscription, which had been created by order of the Achaemenid Shah Darius I, who had declared himself to have been of Aryan origin in his inscriptions. The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs using scaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, the expedition employed a balloon-mounted camera to take detailed pictures of the inscriptions.

Current status: the photographs are being studied in the A.E. headquarters.

One of the many pictures taken during the expedition.

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TURKEY
Year: 1938
Mission: recovery of the holy Grail, which Adolf Hitler believes will be the key to his immortality
Travels: Venice (Italy), Castle Brunwald (Austria), Berlin (Germany), Hatay (Turkey)
Operatives: Colonel Ernst Vogel (A.E.), Dr. Elsa Schneider (A.E.)
Rival operatives: Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (US archaeologist), Henry Jones Sr. (US archaeologist)
Mission Summary: the American archaeology professor Henry Jones Sr. is kidnapped by Colonel Vogel and his Austrian colleague Dr. Elsa Schneider, while searching for the Holy Grail. After rescuing his father from his imprisonment by Colonel Ernst Vogel in the Austrian Castle Brunwald, Indiana Jones travels to Berlin to retrieve his father's diary which contains valuable clues to survive the booby traps guarding the Grail's location. Disguised as a German Army colonel, Jones recovers the diary from Elsa. They catch up with the A.E expedition in Hatay, where it found the temple in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon where the Holy Grail is kept. Indiana Jones is coerced to help them, allowing them to reach the Grail's chamber, where the true Grail is hidden among dozens of false grails. Vogel dies after drinking from a false grail. When Elsa Schneider tries to take the real Grail with her, this causes the temple to collapse around them when she crosses the Great Seal set in the floor at the entrance. 
Current status: the Grail is presumed to be lost. Hitler is looking at other avenues to gain immortality, including experiments on lower vampires.

Vogel with the Grail. Background: Schneider and Jones; unidentified knightly figure.

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TIBET
Year: 1943
Mission: recovery of a mysterious scroll that will grant great powers to the reader
Travels: Tibet
Operatives: Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Blitzkrieg Squad
Rival operatives: /
Mission Summary: the Ahnenerbe tasks Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his Blitzkrieg Squad to travel to Tibet in search of a scroll that contains knowledge that will make its reader powerful, young, and immune to injury. They arrive shortly after a young Tibetan monk is entrusted with guarding the scroll and becomes the new bearer of its powers, forgoing his name. Granted its powers, the monk learns he will need to find his own successor to pass on the scroll in his future, but the German soldiers attack the temple shortly after, and the nameless monk escapes with the scroll after his master is killed.

Current status: current whereabouts of the "Bulletproof Monk" are unknown, though he has appeared in various places and assisted in the fight against AXIS troops.

Only known picture of the Bulletproof Monk, taken by an A.E. photographer in Tibet.

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Inspiration source: Historical references / Raiders of the Lost Ark (movie) / Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (movie) / Bulletproof Monk (movie)

Occult Germany - Intelligence Report- Wiederbelebung Truppen

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INTELLIGENCE REPORT
Code name: Wiederbelebung Truppen
Troop type: Zombies
Nationality: Occult Germany
Affiliation: Thule Society, Doctor Mengele
Characteristics: Indifferent to pain, relentless, merciless, mindless
Vulnerabilities: Decapitation, severe head trauma, fire (not immediately), bodies of water (sinking)
Deployment zone: Western Front, Eastern Front, North Afrika
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It all started in 1943. The Thule Society and Ahnenerbe's repeated failures in attaining the quest for Immortality lead to Hitler sanctioning ever more dangerous experiments by scientists, occultists,  madmen and monsters. One such monster was Brigadeführer Josef Götz. He experimented on fallen soldiers, in an attempt to bring them back to life. 

Doctor Josef Götz, early photograph

Underground facility where the initial experiments took place.

His experiments were a success, of sorts, though not the kind the Führer had been hoping for. The reanimated soldiers were violent mindless creatures, seemingly suffering from an all consuming hunger. While walking around in a shambling way, they were, as individuals, still pretty much dead for all intent and purposes. The decay of their flesh seemed slowed down by the reanimation proces, but not halted, only adding to their gruesome appearances. Their resilience and immunity to pain nonetheless caught the high command's attention. It seemed only severe head trauma, destroying what is left of their brain activity, or total annihilation through fire seemed to stop them. Götz managed to convince the Thule Society to support putting the Wiederbelebung Truppen, as he called them, in the field.

Brigadeführer Götz and his Wiederbelebung Truppen

Initially, only enemy soldiers were reanimated in such a fashion. All memory of their past life was erased anyway and it was believed the German soldiers would consider it a desecration of their fallen friends bodies if they were treated in such a way. The added horror for the enemy soldiers seeing their fallen comrades march back onto them was considered a boon. The initial deployments took place in the Eastern Front and were met with some reasonable success, enough to greenlight the expansion of the program.

Some formerly Russian Wiederbelbung Truppen advancing on a Russian operative

As the war went on though, civilians and, in the end Wehrmacht and Waffen SS troops were reanimated in the same fashion. The Allied Forces would refer to them as Nazi Zombies, regardless of whatever uniform remains are on their back.

Image references: Dead Snow (movie), The Outpost (movie), Call of Duty: WWII Nazi Zombie game mode (game)

 

Soviet Russia - Intelligence Report - Red Room Academy

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INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Identification: Red Room Academy
Nationality: Soviet Russia
Location: Belarus, exact location unknown
Nature of the site: superspy training facility
Number of personnel: unknown
Known affiliations: Red Widow
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The Red Room Academy is a Soviet-Russian training facility posing as a boarding school, presumably located in the Maryina Horka Forest in Belarus. It is home to the Red Room Program, aimed at training and conditioning child assassins and superspies, while medically enhancing their natural skills to superhuman levels. 

All of the pupils are orphans, with the majority of them being girls. Each morning they are indoctrinated and brainwashed through films they are forced to watch and learn by heart. The films serve a double purpose, as they show the behaviour one should display to not raise any suspicions, as well as brainwash the children through subliminal messages embedded in the movies. They are trained in hand-to-hand combat from a young age, as well as in the use of a variety of close range and ranged weapons. 

Fatal "accidents" are not uncommon during that training period and only a fraction of those who enter the Red Room Academy will come out, as deadly weapons for Mother Russia to aim towards its enemies. One such graduate is the infamous Red Widow.

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Inspiration source: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Agent Carter/Black Widow)